Statues of Bashar el-Assad and his father Hafez destroyed in several cities, the palace and residence of the former Syrian president in Damascus ransacked… The fall of the Syrian regime was marked by the destruction of symbols for several days. A week after the rebels took power, the events are gradually becoming clearer. A few hours before the fall of Damascus, on Sunday December 8, the Syrian president fled without warning members of his family or his closest collaborators, several senior Syrian officials revealed to AFP, as well as to Reuters fourteen people aware of the events. These sources paint a picture of a leader seeking outside help to prolong his 24-year rule before resorting to deception and secrecy to prepare for his departure from Syria in the early hours of the fateful day.
The deposed president confided to almost no one his plans to leave the country after the collapse of his regime. Bashar al-Assad left Damascus on December 8 by plane, passing unnoticed and without a transponder, two regional diplomats told Reuters, the dictator thus escaping the clutches of the rebels who were attacking the capital. This spectacular escape ended 24 years of rule, half a century of uninterrupted power of his family and brought a brutal end to 13 years of civil war. Bashar al-Assad flew to the Russian air base of Hmeimim, in the Syrian coastal city of Latakia, and then to Moscow. His wife and their three children were already waiting for him in the Russian capital, according to three former close collaborators and a senior regional official contacted by the English-speaking press agency.
His brother not aware
“He left without warning […] his close collaborators. From the Russian base, a plane took him to Moscow,” an advisor who requested anonymity for security reasons also told AFP. According to three of his collaborators interviewed by Reuters, Bashar al-Assad n He did not even inform his younger brother, Maher, commander of the army's feared 4th Armored Division, of his plans to leave, once he found out by chance while he was with him. his soldiers to defend Damascus, took a helicopter to go to Iraq and then to Russia, one of the sources said.
READ ALSO: In Syria, the dizziness of post-Bashar el-Assad: the scenarios after the rebel victory
Bashar al-Assad's maternal cousins, Ehab and Eyad Makhlouf, were also abandoned when Damascus fell to rebels, according to a Syrian adviser and a Lebanese security official contacted by Reuters. The two men attempted to flee by car to Lebanon but were ambushed by rebels who allegedly shot Ehab Makhlouf and injured Eyad Makhlouf. However, no official confirmation has been given on this death.
A few hours before his departure for Moscow, Bashar al-Assad assured on Saturday December 7, during a meeting of around thirty army and security chiefs at the Ministry of Defense, that Russian military support was en route and urged ground forces to hold firm, according to a commander interviewed by Reuters who was present and requested anonymity to speak about the briefing.
“We would never have imagined such a scenario”
AFP also gives details of the hours preceding the departure of Bashar al-Assad. “This Saturday (December 7), he did not meet us. We knew he was there, but we did not have a meeting with him,” says a senior official at the presidential palace who also requested anonymity . “We were at the palace, we had no explanation and it caused a lot of confusion at the management level and even on the ground,” he explains.
On Saturday, December 7, at 9:00 p.m. local time, “the president called his political advisor Bouthaina Chaabane to ask her to prepare a speech for him and present it to the political committee which was to meet on Sunday morning,” another told AFP. senior official. “At 10 p.m., she calls him back, but he no longer answers the phone,” adds this close collaborator of Bashar al-Assad. In the evening, presidential media director Kamel Sakr told journalists that “the president will make a statement very soon”, then he no longer answered the phone, just like Interior Minister Mohammed al-Rahmoun.
READ ALSO: If I wish to return to Syria, it is as a Frenchman, by Omar Youssef Souleimane
The senior official claims to have stayed in the office until 2:30 a.m. “We were ready to receive a statement or a message from Bashar al-Assad at any moment. We would never have imagined such a scenario. We did not even know if the president was still in the palace,” he says. Around midnight, he is informed that the president will need a cameraman for an event scheduled for the morning. “It reassured us that he was still there […]”, he testifies. But around 2:00 a.m., an officer from the intelligence services called him to tell him that everyone had left the scene. “I was shocked. There were only two of us left in the office. The palace was almost empty, and we were in great confusion,” he said.
At 2:30 a.m., he left the presidential palace. “When we arrived at Umayyad Square (editor’s note: a large and important square in Damascus), there were lots of soldiers fleeing, looking for a means of transport.” “There were thousands of them, coming from the security complex, the Ministry of Defense and other security branches. We learned that their superiors had ordered them to flee,” he relates. “The scene was frightening: tens of thousands of cars were leaving Damascus, while even more people were walking on the road. At that moment, I understood that all was lost and that Damascus had fallen.”
“Tomorrow, we’ll see.”
The former Prime Minister of Bashar al-Assad, Mohammed Jalali, for his part declared that he spoke on the telephone with his president at the time on Saturday December 7 at 10:30 p.m. “During our last call, I told him how difficult the situation was and that there was a massive movement (of people) from Homs to Latakia… that there was panic and horror in the streets ” he told Saudi television channel Al Arabiya this week. “He replied: ‘Tomorrow, we’ll see,’” Jalali added. “'Tomorrow, tomorrow' was the last thing he said to me.” Mohammed Jalali said he tried to call Bashar al-Assad again at dawn on Sunday, but received no response.
READ ALSO: Myriam Benraad: “Syria is probably moving towards an Islamist, even jihadist, diktat”
As Reuters reports, videos from the ousted president's house, taken by rebels and citizens who invaded the presidential complex after his flight and posted on social media, suggest he made a hasty exit, showing cooked food left on the stove and several personal items left behind, such as family photo albums.
A desire to find refuge in the United Arab Emirates
We also know details of the days preceding the fall of the Syrian dictator. When the rebels dominated by Islamists launched their offensive in northern Syria on Wednesday November 27, Bashar al-Assad was in Moscow where his wife Asma was being treated for cancer. He did not appear at the defense of his son Hafez's doctoral thesis two days later, although the whole family attended, according to a presidential official interviewed by AFP who also requested anonymity. Saturday November 30, when he returned from Moscow, Aleppo, the large northern city, had already fallen. A few days later, the rebellion seized the cities of Hama and Homs in the center, before taking Damascus a week later.
READ ALSO: Behind the fall of Bashar al-Assad, these strategic military bases that Vladimir Putin could lose
As Reuters points out, Bashar al-Assad this time could not count on the support of Russia. From Moscow, the Syrian president pleaded for military intervention by Russia but his calls fell on deaf ears, with the Kremlin refusing to intervene, three regional diplomats told this news agency. Moscow, although reluctant to intervene militarily, was however not ready to completely abandon Bashar al-Assad, according to a Russian diplomatic source: the Russian Foreign Ministry would have done everything to guarantee that Assad could leave the country in all security.
Three members of Bashar al-Assad's close circle said he had initially sought refuge in the United Arab Emirates as rebels captured Aleppo and Homs and advanced toward Damascus. But the leader was pushed back by the Emiratis. They feared an international reaction for having hosted a figure subject to American and European sanctions for having allegedly used chemical weapons in a crackdown against insurgents, accusations that Bashar al-Assad rejected.
It is therefore in Moscow, Russia, that Bashar al-Assad now lives, with his wife and their three children. As reported The Guardianit is unlikely that the former president will lead a public and extravagant life in the Russian capital. He and his loved ones are likely to remain under close surveillance by Russian security agents, hidden in an isolated property, out of sight. And the British newspaper predicts that Russia, for its part, “will keep silent about its new guest, avoiding reminding the world that it supported and then welcomed a leader who managed to commit the ultimate political sin: being at home.” both brutally authoritarian and unsuccessful.
